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Arab Cartoons Posted by aziza on Apr 27, 2010
Cartoons (الكاريكاتير) are a very important feature of Arab newspapers (الصحف) and magazines (المجلات). They appear in each and every issue in a large number of publications. They are not always used for entertainment; instead, they are used to criticize political, economic and social conditions. They include very little or no text, but the meaning…
Passive in Arabic – part 2 Posted by aziza on Apr 25, 2010
In English, it is not uncommon to express the agent of the passivized action using a by-phrase, e.g. “this book was written by a famous author”. In Arabic, the passive construction is used mostly without the by-phrase and the agent remains unknown. When we need to use the by-phrase in Arabic, we use the expression…
Passive in Arabic – part 1 Posted by aziza on Apr 20, 2010
The passive (المبني للمجهول) form is very important and interesting. It involves changing the form and the meaning of sentences to a certain extent. In passive constructions, the object of the active sentence becomes a grammatical subject, e.g. ‘my friend wrote the book’ is an active sentence that begins with the subject. Its passive counterpart…
Arabic Prepositions: to and on/about Posted by aziza on Apr 15, 2010
In this post, I give some notes about the form and the use of two prepositions (إلى) and (على). The literal meaning of (إلى) is ‘to’, and it is used in expressions like (أذهب إلى عملي) ‘I go to my work’ and (إلى من يهمه الأمر) ‘to whom it may concern’, etc. It should be…
Abdel Halim Hafez Posted by aziza on Apr 10, 2010
Abdel Halim Hafez (عبد الحليم حافظ) is one of the most famous and popular Arab singers. He was born on the 21st of June 1929 to a simple family in a small town called Halawat in the countryside. His real name is Abdel Halim Ismail Shabana (عبدالحليم إسماعيل شبانة). He lost both his parents and…
Using Arabic Prepositions with Question words Posted by aziza on Apr 7, 2010
Prepositions can be used with question words in Arabic just like English to make questions like from where? or where to? Examples of these questions can be found below: من أين أنت؟ “Where are you from?” إلى أين نذهب؟ “Where do we go?” إلى متى الانتظار؟ “Until when do you wait?” Certain prepositions like (من)…
Easter in the Middle East Posted by aziza on Apr 3, 2010
Easter is celebrated by Christians in the Middle East to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and it is called (عيد القيامة) or (عيد الفصح). It is usually preceded by a week of praying and special ceremonies, e.g. Palm Sunday (أحد الزعف), Good Friday (الجمعة الحزينة), Ash Wednesday (أربعاء الرماد), Thursday (خميس العهد), Easter Saturday…